When I first visited this Barrier Canyon Style pictograph panel last year the light and shadows were pretty bad, so I didn’t end up with any decent photos. This time I made sure to stick around in the late afternoon for a better shot in the warm light.
Earlier this month I set out to find this particular pictograph in the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument that has intrigued me for quite a while. As far as I know, this may be the only pictograph depicting a dinosaur track! There is a very impressive dinosaur trackway located right near these pictographs. I wonder what kind of myths the Native Americans had about the tracks found at this site, especially since some of them appear to head right off the edge of a 1,000+ foot cliff?
Here are a couple of the tracks found at the site:
>> Flag Point
We sure did see a lot of ‘faces’ pictographs last weekend in Canyonlands National Park. Besides the Thirteen Faces and Nine Faces panels, we also found the Eleven Faces. While there may have been Eleven Faces in this panel at one point in time, eight of them are really still visible. The three figures in the photo above were the three rightmost faces in the panel. Unfortunately, calcite has been leaching from the sandstone that these pictographs were painted on, so much of it has been covered in the white substance, making it difficult to photograph. I did my best to bring out the details in this photo.
Besides visiting the Thirteen Faces pictographs last weekend, we also managed to find the Nine Faces. These ghostly figures are all white and not as colorful, but there are at least nine of them that are still visible!
I first noticed this high pictograph panel in May when I backpacked to Peekaboo Spring in Salt Creek Canyon. Since I didn’t have my long lens on that trip (too much weight), I couldn’t get a decent photo of the panel. Since I was able to drive to Peekaboo this last weekend I was able to get a closer photo of this very interesting panel. I took this photo just after sunrise when the early morning light was striking it directly for only a few moments.
Besides the very vivid reverse handprints and white zig-zag snakes, there is also an interesting large circular figure and two half circles that seem to have faded. Below those are a large white snake that is also pretty faded. The most interesting aspect of these pictographs is that they are painted very high up on a cliff with no current access to reach them…and we did try to find a way.
